Hour of Our Death — Ann C. Fallon

SEEING IS BELIEVING

It was big news in the small town of Buncloda: a vision of the Blessed Virgin came to Mary Dowd as she and two companions prayed by a stone grotto in the wee hours of the morning. Now visitors flock to Buncloda from all over Ireland--the curious, the devout, the sick and despairing, some to worship, others to gawk or sell souvenirs. But it is no apparition when a body turns up beside the sacred shrine--and Dublin solicitor James Fleming, with his growing reputation as a sleuth, becomes entwined in a case of ungodly murder and inexplicable miracles.

Among the locals James meets in Buncloda are the two who witnessed Mary's enlightenment: a reclusive farmer named Devane, and Rita Garrotty, a sullen and overworked shop clerk. Yet his investigation seems at cross purposes with the very man who summoned him to the case--Father Jude Donnelly, an arrogant and opportunistic curate who is unabashedly thrilled that the "miracle" occurred in his now-famous parish. Himself skeptical, James is not above setting up a dangerous snare to draw out the murderer. Now it is James who'll watch and wait for a vision...of a killer unveiled...